Osprey Management Program

Osprey nest camera

The birds are back! An osprey pair has returned to our nesting platform in Kelowna, BC. Watch them live on our web cam as they incubate their eggs and raise their young. You can observe them throughout the season, May to September. Enjoy.

About osprey

Ospreys breed near fresh or salt water and build bulky stick nests in trees, on poles, platforms and other structures, including utility poles. The birds often mate for life. Established pairs tend to return to previous nest sites. On average, two to
four eggs can be laid, while incubation can take up to 40 days.

About our program

Unfortunately, when ospreys build nests on live power poles, this causes problems for the birds, as well as our customers and equipment. Debris from a nest can fall on power lines, cause power outages, or cause fires that can injure or kill ospreys. Such
fires can also endanger people and damage FortisBC equipment.

To prevent this from happening, FortisBC has an Osprey Management Program:

When we see an osprey trying to build a nest on one of our utility poles, we will place an orange construction cone on top of the pole to discourage the bird’s efforts.

If an osprey manages to build a nest on a live power pole, we safely remove the nest and provide an alternate pole with a suitable nesting platform. To date, we’ve installed more than 70 nesting platform poles throughout our
service area.

The Osprey Management Program is part of our overall environmental protection plans – where we have environmental specialists on our team who know about wildlife habitat, local fish, native plants, invasive weeds and other environmental
concerns.